Keeping machinery preserved is only part of reserve readiness. Activating part of a six-ship reserve flotilla at least twice each year would let crews and systems repeatedly test the mobilization plan. The peacetime one-in-four deployment pattern could become one in three during war, because ships remain committed to refit, repair, transit, training, and rearming. A paper fleet total therefore cannot be equated with the number of ships continuously available at the front.
Notable Point · 26:26-27:26
Reserve fleets need exercises and realistic readiness ratios
Regular activation exercises and explicit deployment ratios turn nominal reserve hulls into a force that can reinforce wartime operations.